


War on the Hill

by KaT_John_Adams



Category: Elsewhere University (Webcomic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:07:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27030082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaT_John_Adams/pseuds/KaT_John_Adams
Summary: Inspired by this post: https://charminglyantiquated.tumblr.com/post/157283410038/ok-because-elsewhere-university-gives-me-both
Kudos: 9





	War on the Hill

> _**dragon-saint asked:** OK, because Elsewhere University gives me both Feelings and Thoughts: Nobody likes to talk about the year the Gentry took everybody's favourite Chemistry Prof, the one everybody went to when they were struggling, who always had a jar of sweets on his desk, THAT favourite Prof. The Chem students literally went to war, with Flaming Iron (Thermite) and sprays of Collodial Silver. That was Not A Good Year, they would later say.... ps I hope this wasn't too presumptous, just going off on a tangent?_
> 
>   
>  _**Answer:** What the fuck. What the FUCK. Why did I not know until now that Flaming Iron was a Thing. You’ve broadened my horizons, brightened my day._
> 
> _BUT YES that was back in the 80s and it is SUCH A BIG PART of why the chemistry department is the only group on campus where the fear and respect is entirely mutual._

Flaming Iron is an understatement. A startling one, really. Thermite has some specific properties. First, it’s a powder. It’s a dangerous balance of iron oxide and another metal (like aluminum oxide). Second, if you spark it off with a hot enough flame and you get a run-away reaction that burns hot enough to melt through an engine block, destroy artillery, or absolutely ruin any flesh it gets close to.

So when the professor for CHEM305 disappeared two days after demonstrating the power of even low-grade thermite set on top of a inch-thick plate of steel, the students knew what to do.

Red Iron Oxide and aluminum powders were packed into carefully made explosives, ringing the gunpowder core. See, Thermite is not an explosive. It just burns as hot as fury and whiter than the sun. If you want it to cover an area as a weapon, you use something that moves violently, and let it ignite the thermite as it sprays it everywhere. The hell such things can shower on anyone nearby make them beyond inhumane. You don’t use this as a weapon; _you use it as a punishment_.

Colloidal Silver is expensive, but obtainable. And with the right forged department signatures, quite a bit can be delivered to a college campus. A one-way valve, a simple pump made of iron pipes and tubing and a carefully drilled spray nozzle act like poison to humans. They act like flame throwers to the Unkind.

And so a handful of sympathetic engineers and chemistry students set off into the woods. The Fey saw it coming and rose to meet this fight, thinking Themselves prepared for man’s silly little tools of war. That was Their mistake, They had prepared for _war_ , combat as men do for politics and religious fervor. 

They were not prepared for unbridled, violent _spite_.

The first wave to fight these “children” collapsed quickly, taken aback by thunderous explosions that sprayed essence-rending iron and fire across the ground. The ones who got through the make-shift grenades collapsed in confusion as the water sprays turned out painful, turned out _deadly_. 

And the students did not stop. They showed no mercy or willingness to halt. The Fey ranks, broken and terrified, broke and fled into the forest. The enemy in flight, the students pulled back. Not jubilant or sorrowful, but knowing. _This was merely the beginning._

The Gentry struck back in a mad rage, taking and twisting and breaking students and faculty on campus. One class was taken, desks and students alike, in the midst of the third period. Sometimes things like fetches were left. Sometimes just tokens of the students as reminders. The Chem students went back to the forest, they tossed in pipes filled with thermite, fused with magnesium. 

They began burning the forest. 

The militia marched around the flames, spraying, cutting, or burning Anything that stood against them. They gave no quarter. 

On the campus, the Fey retaliated. _Things_ not seen in centuries; Things, never seen before, rampaged. Wards and runes and circles cracked and shattered under the strain. Anyone with magical ability fought back, but this had become dire.

And as suddenly, the assault ended The Beings dispersed into the gloam, fled back to the smoldering, aching forest.

In a great field, circled by a forest burning on one side, quiet as death on the other, met two groups. The Students - haggard but unflinching in their malice - and the Court - bedraggled and angry and fearful. The latter parted and the Professor was brought forward. They shoved him roughly and two students rushed forward and retrieved him. Other students and staff filtered out from the Court side as well, all those taken in this suffocating deluge of violence.

All of them came and hid behind the armed and dark-eyed Chemistry and Engineering students. The Gentry nodded. The students nodded back. This was no easy peace, but a decision not to annihilate one another. The makeshift army walked back out, leaving their weapons behind as well as a note.

_“We give you these,  
We leave them here.   
This is not an offering.  
It is a **warning**.  
~Elsewhere U”_


End file.
